No excuses from Spence, only 'The Truth' in wake of loss to Crawford

Former unified welterweight titlist displays the kind of character that he and all boxing fans should be proud of

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LAS VEGAS — Beaten champions are usually great at making excuses and finding alibis to explain away a defeat. Blame everything and everyone but themselves. But not Errol Spence Jr.

Spence is man’s man and, at least publicly, took his shockingly one-sided loss to Terence Crawford with as much grace and humility as I’ve ever seen in my years of covering boxing.

I have always felt that a fighter reveals his true character in defeat far more than in a glorious victory and Spence showed that he has as much character as anyone. If you’re like me and don’t like excuse making how can you not love Errol Spence?

Crawford had battered him, beaten him, and knocked him down three times — in the second round and twice more in the seventh round — on the way to stopping him in the ninth round of their mega fight to unify welterweight titles and become the first four-belt undisputed 147-pound champion on Saturday night before a Showtime PPV audience and a sold-out crowd of 19,900 at T-Mobile Arena.

But Spence, known as “The Truth,” not only came to the post-fight news conference quickly — many fighters with far less brutal losses would have blown it off because they didn’t want to face the media — he told the truth when he answered question after question.

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“It was an off night. The better man won,” said Spence, who showed nothing but class in defeat. “I’m not here to make any excuses. My timing was off and I couldn’t capitalize on a couple of things. His timing was a lot better than mine.”

Spence, who didn’t even bother wearing sunglasses like many beaten fighters would have in order to hide the battle damage of his swollen and bruised face, told the truth even when peppered with questions that gave him any number of escape hatches to make an excuse or come up with an alibi.

‘No excuses. Hats off to the champion,’ — Spence

Did he feel OK when the fight began?

“I felt cool,” Spence said. “I thought I definitely could do enough to win the fight but I felt good. I’m not here to make any excuses.”

He was asked if the swelling around his eyes early in the bout had perhaps hampered his vision and could have been to blame for the poor performance.

Again, the self-anointed “Big Fish” wouldn’t take the bait.

“I didn’t have difficulty seeing at all,” Spence said.

How about there being issues from making 147 pounds, the only weight class he has fought in during his 11-year pro career?

“I’m a grown man. I decided to agree to the weight and get down to it and that’s what I did. So, no excuses,” Spence responded. “Hats off to the champion.”

Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) has the contractual right to an immediate rematch, as Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) would have had if he had lost. Spence said he will exercise that right. He would prefer for the sequel — one I view as entirely unnecessary, at least immediately — to be at 154 pounds. Crawford seemed open to the possibility.

“It’s something I gotta talk to my management about,” Spence said of a rematch. “But hopefully it’s at 154. (The weight cut) is always difficult, but like I said, I don’t make any excuses. The better man won tonight. Nothing really surprised me. He was just like I thought. Just my timing wasn’t good today. I couldn’t kick it up a notch.

“I know I’m a lot better than what I showed tonight. I know a lot of things were off with me and even though Terence did what he was supposed to do, he was sharp and he was on point. He made sure he was 100 percent ready for this fight.”

Spence had never previously been knocked down. He’d never even been in a fight where he came close to losing until Crawford, who showed why he should be universally hailed as the pound-for-pound king, pounded him. Most fighters use the old line that their opponent never hurt them, but Spence was truthful once again.

“I got a feel for his power probably like the first, second round,” Spence said. “He’s a strong dude, but you know, everybody at this top level have some type of power. But I think because my timing was off he was catching me in between shots.”

Derrick James, Spence’s career-long trainer, sat beside him at the post-fight news conference and seemed to take the loss pretty hard. It had to be a humbling experience for the reigning trainer of the year, especially with the words and boasts he had exchanged with Crawford trainer Brian McIntyre.

“This is what happens in big-time boxing and unfortunately it was us and we got to move on,” said James, who was set to fly to London on Sunday to finish training former heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua for his Aug. 12 rematch with Dillian Whyte. “I’m gonna hold onto this for a long time. I may not ever get over it until after we revenge it. It is what it is. It’s life. Just gotta keep it moving. Deal with it, embrace it and move on.”

While James said the loss will hurt for a long time, Spence assured me he would not let it eat away at him when I asked him about how he would deal with the worst moment of his professional career over the next few days, weeks or months.

As he began to answer in his Texas drawl, Spence actually smiled and chuckled.

“Nah, I’m not gonna stew over it,” he said. “I did what I was supposed to do regardless of the outcome. I did it like a man. I’m definitely not gonna sulk over this. I’m gonna get right back and get to it.”

Spence did not have to take this fight. He easily could have moved up in weight, left Crawford alone and continued to make fat paychecks as one of boxing’s top draws. But Spence is a competitor at heart. He wanted the fight. He wanted it for his legacy and he wanted to give the fans the match we craved. Spence wanted to be part of one of the most significant fights of the era.

If there was any silver lining to Spence’s nightmarish night at the office, he found comfort in that he had stuck to his word, saying long ago that he did not want to leave — could not leave — the welterweight division until facing his natural rival in Crawford.

“Definitely, it was exciting, the whole build up to it,” Spence said when asked if he did take solace knowing that he was the key figure in delivering this great event to the public and to the history books. “It’s something I wouldn’t change for nothing.”

The loss will hurt no matter what Spence had to say, and it should, but his attitude of no regrets, no blame and no excuses revealed this man’s true character.

Nothing but the unvarnished “Truth.”

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Spence photo: Esther Lin/Showtime

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